Keeneland: Leparoux's MRI is negative following spill

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A magnetic resonance imaging test taken Tuesday on the right arm of Julien Leparoux revealed no soft-tissue damage, which clears the 28-year-old jockey to continue riding this week at Keeneland Race Course. Leparoux was thrown from his mount, Here Comes Frazier, in midstretch of the Bourbon Stakes on Sunday.

“Clean,” said Leparoux’s agent, Steve Bass. “He’s planning on riding [Wednesday], and even if he doesn’t, this certainly isn’t a long-term thing. He still has some pain in the arm, but the doctors have told him there are no broken bones or any other damage, so the pain should go away before long.”

By winning eight races on opening weekend of the Keeneland fall meet, Leparoux already has a commanding lead atop the jockey standings. In a little more than six years of riding, Leparoux has been highly decorated, having been voted the 2009 Eclipse Award for top jockey while collecting numerous riding titles at Keeneland, Churchill Downs, and elsewhere.

Still, one more award with which Leparoux has been associated – and might well be again later this year – is one he probably would rather forget. Leparoux was the subject of the 2006 Eclipse for best photograph when photographer Matt Goins snapped Leparoux being thrown in deep stretch during a race on the Keeneland Polytrack at that year’s spring meet. He was not seriously injured then, either.

Remarkably, a sensational photograph of Leparoux flying through the air, just as Here Comes Frazier has thrown him, was taken Sunday by Jeff Coady, the track photographer at Keeneland. The photo is eerily reminiscent of the 2006 photo.

“In both shots he looks like Spiderman,” joked Bass. “It’s unreal that they got a picture of him doing it again.”

Meanwhile, trainer Ken McPeek said Tuesday that surgery for Here Comes Frazier, a 2-year-old colt who suffered multiple fractures in his right hock in the Sunday spill, likely will be performed “in a week or so” at the nearby Rood and Riddle equine hospital. In the meantime, McPeek said the colt is resting comfortably while medicated as veterinarians attempt to determine the best way to approach the complex surgery.